Edmonton International Film Festival: Parks and Recreation's Jim O'Heir relishes leading role in Middle Man

In the midst of filming the dark, indie comedy Middle Man, actor Jim O’Heir received a group text from Amy Poehler sent out to her former castmates on NBC’s Parks and Recreation.

Poehler was jokingly bemoaning a particular situation on the set where she was working, a big-budget film with comfortable trailers and lots of other perks for the actors. O’Heir, who was doing costume changes with fellow Middle Man cast members beside a car on the side of the road in the desert, had other things on his mind.

“I text back ‘Amy, I’m currently trying to find water’,” he laughs from his hotel room in Atlanta, where he’s back to enjoying the benefits of a production with more cash flow.

O’Heir, who played the lovable, butt-of-all-jokes Garry Gergich on Parks and Recreation for seven seasons, isn’t complaining about the Middle Man shoot, which attracted an impressive roster of name actors for the rock-bottom paycheque of $125 a day. He’s simply marvelling at the disparity, and evincing more than a little pride at the result of their work, which was filmed for well under a million dollars and partially funded by Kickstarter. Middle Man screens Wednesday, Oct. 5 at the Edmonton International Film Festival.

Penned a decade ago by writer-director Ned Crowley with O’Heir in mind, Middle Man languished at the bottom of Crowley’s drawer until O’Heir’s stock rose with the success of Parks and Recreation. Andrew West and Josh McDermitt from The Walking Dead and Anne Dudek of Mad Men signed on, and O’Heir took the lead as former accountant and struggling standup comedian Lenny Freeman. He makes a deal with a mysterious hitchhiker (West) that increases Freeman’s comedic abilities while also setting off a bloody killing spree.

It’s dark and funny, looks shinier than its micro budget would have you believe, and recently won the Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. O’Heir spoke about the cinematic baby that he and Crowley have been nursing for 10 years.

Q: I got something of a Coen Brothers vibe off of Middle Man, not so much in the story as in the way it gleefully sends its characters down such a dark path.

A: The Coens? I’ll take that and raise the flag. Those are the kinds of films that I really enjoy. It does have something of a Fargo feel to it, and a lot of people have also compared it to Breaking Bad. I’ll take that as well, but the thing is that Ned wrote that script well before Breaking Bad. He wrote it and put it away because he had no access to anything.

Q: How did you get such a strong cast for such little money?

A: The script was just that good. It proves that actors will work for nothing if the film is worth it. I mean, Andy West had been just up in Toronto shooting a pilot for a J.J. Abrams show where he was the lead, staying in big trailers and enjoying all of the catering stuff that actors enjoy, and then he was down with us sweating in the heat. He’ll tell you it was special. After it was over he said “Dude, we have to do it again.” I said “I don’t think my heart can take it, but yeah, I’m on board.”

Q: This is also your chance to be the lead in a film.

A: It was perfect timing after coming off Parks. For seven years I played the sweetest guy in world, a complete milquetoast, and it was great, but Hollywood is Hollywood and you don’t want to be typecast. I love comedy, and this is a comedy, but I’m actually the straight man in this. It was definitely hard, though. We were in the desert for days on end in the car, Andy and me with Ned and the director of photography Dick Buckley, the windows rolled up in 104 degrees. I would think, well, today is the day I die, and I’m kind of OK with it.

Q: Now you have to send the film off among the Hollywood blockbusters and see if it sails.

A: The film festival world was something I knew nothing of. I didn’t know about how a film has to première at the right festival; when we won in Seattle I was surprised. I can honestly tell you we never even thought of winning. I was shooting in Chicago, and Ned texted me to say we had won. I said “won what?” He said “I’m not sure, but people seem really happy for us.” When I found out it was the Grand Jury Prize, it made it that much more fun.

Preview

Middle Man

At: Edmonton International Film Festival

When: Wednesday Oct. 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Landmark Cinema 9, Edmonton City Centre

Tickets: $15, at the door or from the Edmonton Film Fest website. Director Ned Crowley will be on hand for a Q&A.

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